National borders matter … where one draws the lines too

Abstract The fact that crossing a political border dramatically reduces trade flows has been widely documented in the literature. The increasing number of borders has surprisingly attracted much less attention. The number of independent countries has indeed risen from 72 in 1948 to 192 today. This paper estimates the effect of political disintegration since World War II on the measured growth in world trade. We first show that trade statistics should be considered carefully when assessing globalization over time, since the definition of trade partners varies over time. We document a sizeable resulting accounting artefact, which accounts for 17% of world trade in 2007. Second, based on a structural gravity equation, we estimate that since World War II political disintegration alone has raised measured international trade flows by 7% but decreased actual trade flows (including inter‐regional trade) by 2%.     

新型城镇化效率演化趋势及其驱动机制研究

在分析新型城镇化发展动力机制的基础上,通过构建新型城镇化效率的综合评价指标体系,运用超效率DEA模型和灰色系统理论GM(1,N)模型对1998-2010年河南省新型城镇化效率发展演化趋势及其驱动因素进行研究。结果表明:河南省的新型城镇化效率虽然整体上呈现上升趋势,但2000-2009年处于停滞阶段,2010年才突破发展瓶颈;农业现代化和现代服务业是河南省新型城镇化效率的驱动力量,而传统工业化发展模式和市场化水平低下是河南省新型城镇化效率的制约因素。     

桑叶中1-脱氧野尻霉素生物活性及检测方法的研究进展

1-脱氧野尻霉素是桑叶中含量千分之一的生物碱类成分,本文综述了目前研究报道的其降血糖、抗病毒、抗肿瘤等生理活性,以及测定其含量的四种分析方法：柱前衍生化高效液相色谱法、柱前衍生化反相高效液相色谱-荧光检测法、液相色谱-质谱联机检测法及高效液相蒸发光散射检测法（HPLC-ELSD）等。     

三七总皂苷对痛风的干预

目的本文以尿酸钠100μg mL-1诱导体外急性炎症模型,观察三七总皂苷对ICAM-1表达及内皮细胞凋亡的影响,探讨临床用于痛风的价值。方法采用2.5、5.0、10.0μg mL-1浓度的三七总皂苷进行预干预,实时定量PCR检测ICAM-1的基因表达,流式细胞仪测定细胞凋亡率。结果三七总皂苷组2.5、5.0、10.0μg mL-1明显抑制细胞凋亡（6.90±1.07）%,与模型组比较P〈0.01;能显著抑制ICAM-1基因的表达。结论三七总皂苷显著抑制炎症因子ICAM-1的表达及细胞凋亡。     

Food,literature, art,and the demise of dualistic thought

In the early 1990s philosopher Deane Curtin proposed a “food‐centered philosophy of human being,” whereby food became a potential site for the elimination of the self/other duality so central to Western thought. Since food is ingested and becomes part of the self, it obliges us to reconceptualize not only the other but also the identity of a self that is so permeable, it can physically incorporate the other. Food/cooking/eating as a conceptual complex has further challenged the self/other dichotomy in barrier‐breaking new cultural artifacts such as “food books,” performance art pieces, and popular film.     

“二一制”下高职高专财会类专业实践教学模式的研究

当今社会对高职高专人才的应用能力要求不断增强，如何适应社会、提高学生应用能力，成为有关高校亟待解决的问题。其中，“二一制”模式的选择，纳入化解矛盾的宏观措施，在此背景下进行高职高校财会类专业实践教学模式研究。     

Evaluating guilt arousing marketing communications

An empirical investigation was conducted to evaluate the impact of guilt arousing marketing communications. The results indicated that guilt as a distinct emotion can be aroused to the extent of changing message specific attitudes. However, it was not possible to change either global attitudes or behavioral intentions. One reason for the failure of guilt arousing marketing communications to affect global attitudes and behavioral intentions may be due to counterarguing on the part of message recipients.     

Transfer problem dynamics: Macroeconomics of the Franco-Prussian war indemnity

We study the classic transfer problem using the largest historical example, the Franco-Prussian War indemnity of 1871-1873 which saw France transfer to Germany 25% of a year's GDP. A dynamic, two-country model allows for debt finance, supply-side effects, and controls for wartime spending. The model can fit the historical paths of French net exports and the terms of trade. But explaining French output and consumption requires additional shocks. These results illustrate the usefulness of the DSGE approach to the transfer problem and provide striking evidence of the importance of international capital markets in the 19th century.     

Constitutional safeguards against centralization in federal states: An international cross-section analysis

This paper contains an international cross-section analysis of the share of central government expenditure in total government expenditure for a sample of about 50 countries and a subsample of 23 industrial countries in 1989–91. The expenditure shares, their changes and the unexplained residuals for each country are reported in Table 1. As the analysis demonstrates, the share of central government is significantly lower, if income per capita and the country's area are large and if it is a federal state. The explanatory power of the equation rises considerably if the binary dummy for federalism is replaced by quantitative constitutional variables. The most powerful single explanatory variable is the age of the constitutional court in the complete sample or the constitutional court's independence of union institutions in the sample of industrial countries. The equation's explanatory power (adjusted for degrees of freedom) can be raised by allowing also for the degree of control which provincial institutions have over the constitution and over the second chamber and by taking into account whether an increase in federal tax rates requires a popular referendum. Other types of constitutional referenda and the relative age of the federal constitution do not seem to matter. Among the federal states, the share of central government is much larger than predicted in the United States and Mexico, and it is much smaller than predicted in Argentina and Canada. The constitutional variables are particularly helpful in explaining the relatively small share of central government in Switzerland, Malaysia, Germany and Austria. The last section draws conclusions for the design of constitutions with some special applications to the European Union.     

Competition,agency and productivity

This article tests a set of hypotheses relating to agency and Schumpeterian views on how competition affects performance. A survey data set of Australian workplaces is used, with the change in labour productivity as the dependent variable. The results show strong support for the idea that intense competition raises productivity growth in managerial workplaces, but not in non‐managerial workplaces (i.e. where the principal owner also works). Testing the agency theories in more detail, we find no evidence that the number of competitors, the price elasticity of demand or a proxy for bankruptcy (pre‐tax losses) are the mechanisms behind the process. For non‐managerial workplaces the results indicate support for the idea that greater demand uncertainty reduces productivity growth. In contrast, for managerial workplaces, greater demand uncertainty tends to raise productivity growth.